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My first opinion is Purdue and Indiana get royally ****ed. Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin are historically very strong. Iowa is good now, but there's no guarantee they will continue. Nebraska seems to be rebounding, but who knows if that will continue. And Michigan, who has really fallen apart, gets a huge break IMO.

If Nebraska kicks *** and if/when Michigan rebounds I guess I'll feel better about this, but right now I'd still rather have had it just cut south from Chicago.

[edit] Looking at the schedules, interesting that due to the home/away format, Illinois, IU, and Purdue won't play Nebraska until at least 2013. If they stay with the home/away, and thanks to the Penn State "rivalry" one of those teams won't play Nebraska until 2015.

Re: Big Ten divisions announced

I think the main problem with this is that Michigan and Ohio State aren't in the same division. I know they want them to meet in the championship game, but the end of the year michigan/osu game won't be the same now.

Re: Big Ten divisions announced

They aren't doing divisions in basketball, and really, there is no need to.

I like the divisions, and I like the thinking behind it. I assume it went something like this: Separate A+ powers Michigan and Ohio State. Separate A- powers Nebraska and Penn State. Separate B powers Iowa and Wisconsin. The rest are year-to-year and non-traditional powers, so I think they tried to preserve rivalries and give each team a decent "guaranteed" non-division game each season. I guess Indiana/Michigan State is guaranteed every year, though I don't know a single person who gives two ****s about that "rivalry".

Re: Big Ten divisions announced

I think the main problem with this is that Michigan and Ohio State aren't in the same division. I know they want them to meet in the championship game, but the end of the year michigan/osu game won't be the same now.

They will still play every year. But do you want them playing the last week of the season and then again in the championship game?

PSU and Nebraska is a good rivalry to have, one of the better options for Nebraska really. There is the whole 95 issue where PSU was sent to the Rose Bowl instead of playing in the national title which Nebraska won. Plus both schools have a rich football history with very strong fan bases.

Honestly the divisions seem pretty good. Right now PSU, OSU and Wisconsin are definitely some of the better teams. But historically Iowa, Michigan and Nebraska are usually on that level too. Michigan will rebound sooner than later.

Re: Big Ten divisions announced

Delaney was on Big 10 network discussing this last night. He said that there are 12 "trophy" games in the conference and 8 or 9 of them will be played every year with the new set up. The others will rotate every so often. This past season 10 of the 12 were played.

He said they will look at how this works after a few years and see if it needs any changes. As cdash stated, the divisions are only for football, no other sports.

Re: Big Ten divisions announced

The last of the trophy games will be addressed if/when they move to 9 conference games in '15. Of course, we may very well have more expansion to worry about by then.

CD makes a very good case matching up the 1/2/3 seeds in each conference. I read this morning they looked at program performance since 1993, so that makes perfect sense. My problem with that is Michigan and Nebraska are not the same teams they were in the 90's, and while we can assume they will return to prominence, we don't know for sure. Putting both of them in the same division, along with the historically lesser of the 3 seeds in Iowa, really hurts balance. There's just too much instability there.

As my brother the Spartan said (after celebrating his easy draw), the one that doesn't make any sense is Wisconsin. After establishing themselves as a real powerhouse over the last 20 years, they're punished by being put in with OSU and PSU and losing all their regional matchups. Of course, they do have the most to gain, if they start beating up on the Buckeyes and Lions.

Re: Big Ten divisions announced

The last of the trophy games will be addressed if/when they move to 9 conference games in '15. Of course, we may very well have more expansion to worry about by then.

CD makes a very good case matching up the 1/2/3 seeds in each conference. I read this morning they looked at program performance since 1993, so that makes perfect sense. My problem with that is Michigan and Nebraska are not the same teams they were in the 90's, and while we can assume they will return to prominence, we don't know for sure. Putting both of them in the same division, along with the historically lesser of the 3 seeds in Iowa, really hurts balance. There's just too much instability there.

As my brother the Spartan said (after celebrating his easy draw), the one that doesn't make any sense is Wisconsin. After establishing themselves as a real powerhouse over the last 20 years, they're punished by being put in with OSU and PSU and losing all their regional matchups. Of course, they do have the most to gain, if they start beating up on the Buckeyes and Lions.

If they have truly established themselves then they won't get beat up on by PSU and OSU.

It is sweet to have two Boilermakers as the namesake for the QB trophy though. Woodson is in there also for DBs.

All in all, I don't like the division names, not a big fan of the logo (although the B1G alone is better), and I don't like all the trophy names with two names. Although it is nice they honor former players, they just don't sound good.

Re: Big Ten divisions announced

And I'm sorry, but Griese-Brees sounds like what happens after a drunken 3am trip to White Castle.

*WARNING* Off topic story begins now:

Speaking of White Castle, once, after a night of much drinking and several unsuccessful attempts at dancing and flirtation with the opposite sex, my roommate and I made a drunken stop at The Castle. We were particularly ambitious on this night, ordering the 30 slider Crave Case for our late night snacking needs. Unfortunately for us, we each ate one and passed out, myself on the hardwood floor (not recommended), and my roommate on the couch. Even more unfortunate for us, our dog, an absolutely wonderful Boxer named Chloe, found the temptation of 28 glorious sliders too much to resist, eating as far as we could tell, every last morsel of all 28 gut bombs, many of the boxes, and at least part of the case. If you think White Castles do a number on a grown *** man, you should see what 28 of them do to a dog. Neither poor Chloe, nor the rug by the front door, were ever the same again. That was the longest week of our lives.

Re: Big Ten divisions announced

CHICAGO -- Jim Delany has spent more than two decades as commissioner of the Big Ten, overseeing two conference expansions and the formation of the Big Ten Network.

None of it prepared him for the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the conference's new division names.

Delany said during an interview with WGN AM-720 in Chicago on Thursday that the names Legends and Leaders were picked to highlight the conference's rich history, and that "to a great extent it's fallen on deaf ears." Many fans have instead mocked the names and asked officials to reconsider, which Delany said could happen after the first of the year.

"I think we have enough experience with names, and expansion and development of divisions, to know that you never, rarely, get 90 percent approval rating," Delany said during the interview. "But to get a 90 percent non-approval rating was, you know, really surprising."

The league will be split into two divisions beginning next season, when Nebraska becomes the 12th member. The Huskers will be joined by Northwestern, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota and Iowa in the Legends Division. Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin will comprise the Leaders Division.

At least, assuming those are still the names by then.

"We want to breathe a little bit," Delany said. "I don't think you make a judgment in 48 hours or 72 hours. Eventually we're going to have to address the issue of whether or not it's sustainable, but I don't think that's an issue for today..."